Top 14 key change management elements

Change rarely comes easily

Organizations, and the people within them, must constantly re-invent themselves to remain competitive. As a result, today’s leaders must do more than manage the status quo – leaders must be champions in change readiness – the ability to continuously initiate and respond to change in ways that create advantage, minimize risk, and sustain performance.

Here are 14 tips:

#1 – Resistance to change

Expecting resistance to change and planning for it from the start of your change management progamme will allow you to effectively manage objections. Understanding the most common reasons people object to change gives you the opportunity to plan your change strategy to address these factors.

#2 – A sense of urgency

Failure to create a strong sense of urgency causes a change movement to lose momentum before it gets a chance to start. Establishing a true sense of urgency without creating an emergency is the first objective achieved to overcome the routine of daily business.

#5 – Involve the people

#6 – Increase engagement by asking questions

Have you ever been “talked at” instead of had someone “talk with”? It doesn’t feel good to have someone talk at you. It leaves you feeling like you might as well not have been there at all. It is much more powerful asking questions. Increase engagement by asking questions when leading change.

#7 – How to deliver bad news in connection with change

Delivering bad news is one of the biggest challenges managers face. How can you deliver bad news in a way that minimizes the damage: Don’t wait too long – do it as soon as possible, give them the big picture, speak candidly and plan for questions.

#8 – Culture an important part of change management

#9 – Storytelling

Storytelling can be a powerful tool when you want to drive organizational change. Good leaders tell stories that “cast” them and their organizations as agents of change, rather than defenders of the status quo.

#10 – Change old habit

Sustaining success depends on an organization’s ability to adapt to a changing environment – whether it’s an external change, such as a transformative technology or a changing economy, or an internal one, such as a restructuring or key process overhaul

#11 – Change require breaking down silos

Business silos, just like agricultural silos hold something important and make it hard to get at. That’s good when you’re protecting wheat and corn from rain & snow. But it’s bad when you’re trying to change across departments and divisions. And the bigger the company the more harmful a role silos play. Silos create an environment where sharing and collaborating for anything other than one silo’s special interests is virtually impossible.

#12 – Communication is paramount when it comes to change management

Lots of it. Change is unsettling because it brings with it an element of uncertainty. And it is the uncertainty which is a major cause of resistance to change. People can relate to facts – good or bad – but uncertainty and contradicting messages breed unease and resistance. Therefore, it is important to communicate with everybody about everything in relation to the upcoming changes in order to reduce the uncertainty. Use any communication channels available and remember that it is impossible to over-communicate change.

#13 – Use social media

Social media platforms are ideal mechanisms to facilitate change because much of change management boils down to ongoing conversations and dialogue in a company.

#14 – Change management and the power of small wins

Large change management problems are best broken down into smaller ones with concrete achievable goals. Otherwise it can be so overwhelming that solutions seem unattainable – therefore, people often avoid tackling them or come up with single, grand programs that fail. Don’t forget to pour champagne on it.

Avoid these common change management mistakes

For companies to survive and strive in today’s competitive environment, they will need to change quickly and successfully. The reality is that many change efforts fail. Many of these failures can be traced to these common mistakes:

Experienced senior executive, both at a strategic and operational level, with strong track record in developing, driving and managing business improvement and development and change management. International experience from management positions in Denmark, Germany and Switzerland

Experienced senior executive, both at a strategic and operational level, with strong track record in developing, driving and managing business improvement and development and change management. International experience from management positions in Denmark, Germany and Switzerland

3 comments on “Top 14 key change management elements”

March 14, 2012 1:30 pm

Richard

Thank you Torben, this arrived at a most opportune time for our small company.. I am sharing with our management team.. will also create an opportunity to debate this and then attempt to get commitment to implement the principles of ‘managing change’.

March 28, 2012 9:08 am

Fabore

There is no doubt, that there are a lot of recommendations about how to implement succesfull change. Nevertheless these 14 points do not adress the problem at its core. I mean, a lot of communication and a lot of commitment is ok, but when it comes to do the things differently (and that is b.t.w. why we pursue change) we meet a lot of barriers at other levels such as political rules, group dynamics or compensation systems that slow down the process of change significantly. Such behavioral barriers are hard to adress just with a lot of communication.

April 14, 2012 11:15 am

Robert_Rowshan

Creating a dynamic organization that is open to change is tricky. Go too far and you’ve got chaos, instability and uncertainty. Do too little and you’ve got a lumbering organization that will eventually become irrelevant. The key is what you mention in #8, culture.